Rough ride on Day 1: Ride the Rockies 1, Joe Murphy 0.

Day 1 of Ride the Rockies 2013 along the Telluride to Cortez, Colorado route (Photo by Joe Murphy)

I knew I was in trouble at the 64-mile mark, when Mike, on his third Ride the Rockies, told me this was the easiest day he’s seen.

(Photo by Joe Murphy)

I’m a first-time Ride the Rockier, and I had one of those you-have-an-idea-what-to-expect-but-you-don’t-really-know-until-you-get-there days on the bicycle, starting with a frigid Telluride morning and ending in Cortez, currently probably the Hottest City in Colorado (it’s still 93° and it’s 7 p.m., how is that even possible?).

But as far as point A to point B’s go, this was capital-M Majestic. One reason why it took so long to reach the finish (beside the blown tube and the gaping rip in my bike tire) was I kept stopping to take photos. A fourteener here. A mountain cabin nestled in the trees there.

The beautiful scenery on the Telluride to Cortez, Colorado route on day 1 of Ride the Rockies.(Photo by Joe Murphy)

Bonus photo: Guy cracking an egg on his head atop Lizard Head Pass in exchange for a free t-shirt. “I’ll do anything for a free t-shirt, apparently,” he said.

(Photo by Joe Murphy)

So, the ride. It’s big. Thousands-of-people big — director Chandler Smith said up to 3,000 people take part in the ride. Of those, about two thousand are the bicyclists, the rest support staff and vendors. The bicyclists hail from 49 states and 11 countries.

This year’s Ride the Rockies tour starts in southwestern Colorado and ends Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Today’s ride took us from Telluride (8,750′) up Lizard Head Pass (10,222′, not as hard as I thought) down to Rico (8,825′, rustic, pleasantly warm), through Stoner*, and then Stoner Creek, Colorado into some semi-steep headwinds before hitting Dolores (6,936′, a hunting and rafting depot, a little too hot) and then Cortez (6,191′, scorching, withering, melting).

“I proposed on Ride the Rockies two years ago,” Chapple said. The two were decked out in semi-rider-friendly gear and were riding a tandem bicycle custom made for them by the owner of Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop in Denver.

The couple on a a tandem bicycle. (Photo by Joe Murphy)

“[The owner] said wherever your relationship is going, it’s going to get there faster on a tandem,” Chapple said.

Tomorrow: The road formerly known as the Devil’s Highway, and 64 miles / 3,442′ vertical feet of pain.

* Wait, what’s Stoner, Colorado? There isn’t a page on wikipedia for Stoner. It’s not on Wikipedia’s list of Colorado cities and towns. The U.S. Census Bureau knows nothing of it. It’s the “town” Stoner, population one[3].

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